


Find Yourself In The Moment And Know That It Won’t Last (the Second String remix)

by tielan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers Family, Avengers Tower, Friendship, Gen, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-05
Updated: 2018-09-05
Packaged: 2019-06-23 06:18:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15600162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/pseuds/tielan
Summary: Tony isn't the only one making a family out of a rag-tag bunch of heroes.





	Find Yourself In The Moment And Know That It Won’t Last (the Second String remix)

**Author's Note:**

> Trope Bingo square 'Curtainfic'.

When Pepper Potts hired Maria Hill to work for Stark Industries, she didn’t plan to offer her live-in accommodation. She’s not entirely sure why she does at the time.

The suite is not quite finished, a few finishing touches that still need doing. Pepper mentally makes a note to check when the interior decorator is coming back this week, because it’s been two weeks since she last saw their team in the building, and these rooms should be done by now.

Not that Maria Hill seems to mind. She gives the room a quick, crisp survey, and then turns to Pepper.

“I don’t need somewhere to live.”

“No,” Pepper agrees. “But if you’re going to be working on world security with the Avengers, then you’ll be spending long hours here, and you can’t always go back to your apartment. Plus, doesn’t HYDRA know where you live?”

“They’ve known for the last five years, and I’m still alive.”

“But now HYDRA knows you know about them.” Pepper keeps her tone reasonable. “And with Nick Fury dead, you’re the next in line.”

Maria snorts. “Me? Next in line? From HYDRA’s point of view? I doubt it.” But when she turns to look at the room again, she’s eyeing it with a gaze that’s more thoughtful than dismissive. Pepper’s almost ready when the thoughtfulness turns razor sharp. “How much of this is because you want someone to keep an eye on Stark?”

Pepper bites back a smile. “Not that much, actually. Believe it or not, Tony’s getting better at not landing himself in trouble.”

“Uhuh.” In spite of the cynical noise, Pepper is pretty sure that Maria likes Tony – when she doesn’t want to kill him. It’s a common reaction, not only by complete strangers but by people who know him, and even people who like him, such as Pepper.

Maria looks around the apartment as though imagining her life in here, then crosses to the window and stares out at the city skyline. Pepper glances at her watch, but waits for an answer, because she understands decision-making processes and how not to rush things, particularly for another woman who’s contemplating life changes.

“I have to sort a few things out regarding my apartment in DC.”

“We can put you up at a hotel—”

“And then I have to check on something down in South Africa.” Maria’s smile is not quite apologetic as she turns to interrupt Pepper’s offer. “So it’ll be at least two weeks before I can move in.”

Satisfaction spreads warmth through Pepper’s chest. “Does that make it two weeks before you can start work, too?”

“At least.” Maria strides back, her heels echoing in the empty space. “Thank you.”

“Thank _you_ ,” Pepper says emphatically.

“Because I’m going to wrangle Tony for you?”

“Well, Yes. And world security...”

Maria snorts. “Thank me when the world doesn’t end.”

“We made it through the last two weeks,” Pepper points out. “A lot of that was thanks to you.”

There’s a moment when Maria looks stunned, like she’s already put the events of DC behind her. Then she laughs, appreciative. “Point taken.”

But afterwards, when Pepper’s sent her off to HR to do the paperwork, she stands at the window of the unfinished unfurnished apartment and wonders if Maria really _did_ understand her point.

Pepper knows what it is to be discounted and dismissed: a pretty face, useful on occasion, but not worth attending when there’s someone more _important_ around. She knows what it’s like to exist in the shadow of a superhero.

Just because she never wanted to stand in the public eye didn’t mean she never wanted to be appreciated.

_It’s you. It’s always been you._

At that moment, with New York spread out below her, Pepper sees that she can give that to others – like Maria – just as Tony gave that to her.

“I hear an ex-S.H.I.E.L.D spook is due to move in soon,” Rhodey says the next time he sits down in Pepper’s office.

So maybe she takes a little too much pleasure in asking, “Which one?” But his roll of his eyes is all the exasperation she needs from Rhodey. “Her name is Maria Hill, and she’s Stark Industries’ new Director of Security. And, yes, she’s moving in tomorrow.”

Dark eyes give her a shrewd look. “How did Tony take it?”

“You haven’t spoken to him yet?”

“I’ve been calming the Generals down. There was already chatter about Stark Industries in the energy sector, now there’s concern about exactly what Tony’s privatising regarding international intelligence.”

“The Avengers aren’t there to challenge American security interests, Rhodey. You know that.”

“I know that. But I also know you and Tony. They’re only seeing the acquisition of weapons—”

“The Avengers aren’t just weapons, Rhodey.”

“—and fretting about Tony’s intentions. And they are definitely weapons, Pepper. I trust them, and I trust Tony, but the Avengers _are_ dangerous people. And so is Hill, although a different kind entirely. It doesn’t look good when it’s down on paper.”

“But you _know_ us.”

Pepper tries not to feel betrayed, because she thought that Rhodey would understand better.

“ _I_ do. But the Joint Chiefs don’t, and it’s _really_ hard to convince them all Tony wants is to recreate the Super Friends with less spandex! Hiring Hill on top of that is just the cherry on the cake of their paranoia.”

“Well, they’ll have to learn to swallow their paranoia,” Pepper says firmly. “Because this is happening, Rhodey. It was my idea and my decision to hire Maria, not Tony’s.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Rhodey shakes his head. “All I’m saying is it doesn’t look good.”

“It can look as bad as it wants, so long as it happens.” A reminder beeps on Pepper’s phone, and almost immediately after, a message pops up – from Maria. How timely.

_Tidied up loose threads. Should be ready to move on Thursday. M._

She looks from the message to Rhodey and smiles.

“Uh oh,” he murmurs with a shake of his head. But he readily agrees to help Maria move in; and even if he’s planning to scope out the dangers she presents, Pepper knows it won’t be the first time a man has eyeballed Maria first and trusted her later, and knows the other woman is more than capable of handling it.

Pepper arranges Maria’s Tower access with JARVIS, because Tony’s busy with Bruce in the labs for the three days leading up to moving in. It’s not the first time she’s had to do it when Tony forgot, but it’s the first time she realizes it’s a sign of a shift in their lives when JARVIS notes that he’s stored a general set of Tower accesses that might be useful for personnel who are ‘adjacent to the Avengers’.

It’s not just her and Tony, Bruce and occasionally Rhodey anymore. It’s not even ‘the Avengers’. It’s something bigger, something more. There are intelligence agents and security experts in Stark Tower these days, and more specialists in science and technology than she can poke a stick at.

Pepper reads up on Dr. Helen Cho the night before the celebrated geneticist is due to arrive from South Korea. The professional profile has much to say about her skills and her abilities,but very little to say about what she’s like in person. It turns out she’s brisk and polite and commanding, with a sharp wit and a droll sense of humor. She’s also capable, competent, and when Tony interrupts her, she waits for him to finish and then patiently starts from where she was interrupted.

Helen Cho has a lot of patience.

Her father, it turns out, was a brilliant scientist who – like many men before him – didn’t think much of his daughter’s capabilities. His energy, effort, and praise went to people other than his daughter, yet it’s his daughter who’s the brilliance behind U-GIN’s current direction. Over dinner and careful, subtle questioning, Pepper discovers that Helen built on his research because it was expected of her, but she’s taken it in ways her father never imagined.

“We have organ mesh frameworks, which presently can be seeded with the patient’s own cells so that the tissue that grows there is compatible with the recipient – which is a start – no more cellular rejections. But why not rebuild and replicate the tissue from the individual’s own? We are able to program replication at the cellular level – with appropriate mechanisms in place to direct the replication – the building – we might be able to rebuild from the start a heart for someone who is in need of a transplant but for whom no suitable donor can be found.”

Pepper makes sure that Maria takes time for dinner with her and Helen during one of the periods when the Avengers aren’t assembling and they have no need of her in operations. Maria drags Jane Foster along, because the astrophysicist has otherwise been holed up in the lab for several days, and – in Maria’s words – Jane can see Thor anytime when he’s not Avengering. Besides, the Avengers are doing one of their ‘team nights’ where it’s not that anyone else is uninvited, just that Tony talks a lot about it being a ‘team night’ and he doesn’t need to drop bricks for people to get the hint.

She loves him, but sometimes Tony is an ass.

The hunt for Loki’s staff isn’t the only search going on right now. Maria has told her about Steve’s hunt for Bucky Barnes – also known as the Winter Soldier. She tells Pepper with Steve’s permission, although Steve seems bemused when he finds them discussing it, and Maria reminds him he said she could tell Pepper.

“I remember. You wouldn’t tell anyone you thought I didn’t consider trustworthy,” he says. “Well, except for Fury.”

Pepper is a little surprised at the interjection, although Tony isn’t too fond of Fury either. However Maria seems unfazed by the barb. “I didn’t have to tell Fury. That was all you and Natasha and Sam.”

Sam Wilson is another person who gets assigned ‘Avengers-adjacent’ tower access. He breezes in and out of the tower, reports to Steve on how things are going while looking for Bucky Barnes, and flirts with Pepper, Maria, Natasha, and any other woman who happens to cross his path in the tower. Pepper likes him. Sam Wilson isn’t a soul without his nightmares, but he’s learned how to level with them, how to deal with them without getting lost in them.

And he and Rhodey hit it off once they meet, to the point where Tony complains that Rhodey comes to the tower to meet Sam more than he does to see Tony.

“Relax, Tony,” Maria advises him. “Rhodey still loves you best, even if he has made a new friend.”

“He’d better,” Tony grumbles. “I’ve known him longer.”

There’s an odd contradiction to Tony’s possessiveness. On one hand, he’s put a lot of effort into not needing anyone – or giving the appearance that he doesn’t, on the other... Well, he may not be an emotional black hole, but sometimes Pepper wonders just how sane Tony would be without her, Rhodey, and the Iron Man suit.

Sometimes she wonders a little about her own sanity.

Having other people in and out of the tower who aren’t Avengers, whose personal loyalty doesn’t first go to Tony is...a relief. Their lives are lived alongside the Avengers, but they’re not _about_ the Avengers.

Well, except for Maria, who’s stuck with them both at work, and ‘at home’.

“You did take the job,” Sam Wilson points out when Maria notes there aren’t enough hours in the day for her to sleep. “Although I think your really big mistake was to take the residency.” He turns to Helen. “Do you have any twos?”

Helen’s smile is swift and pleased. “No. Go fish!”

They’re in the ‘comfortable lounge’, a small space just above a larger, more elegant lounge, hidden from view by a lattice screen. The small space is full of mismatched couches and low tables, which is excellent for sitting and relaxing in – or playing a card game that slowly grows bigger as more people turn up to play.

Helen’s in town to consult with Bruce on a new project that they’re just calling ‘the Cradle’. Rhodey came to consult with Maria on something intelligence-related that neither of them are willing to tell Pepper, only citing that the less she knows, the better for her. Jane came to see Thor, Sam to see Steve.

Pepper was a little annoyed that Tony had planned an ‘Avengers’ Night Out’ when all she wanted was a night in, but it’s turning out better than she thought. Somehow, they’re all sitting around playing ‘Go Fish’ and drinking from the wet bar. Sam has an encyclopaedic knowledge of how to make alcoholic drinks, and what he doesn’t know, JARVIS is happy to supply.

“I’d only end up working from home and spending extra time commuting,” Maria grumbles.

“Being thousands of miles away doesn’t keep Tony from calling when he has something he thinks only you can solve.” Pepper turns to Jane. “Do you have any sixes?”

Jane blinks, then hands over one card with a sigh. “I feel like I’m losing this game so miserably.”

“Do you have any queens?” Pepper asks Maria.

“Go fish.” Maria promptly turns to Sam. “Hand over your twos, Sam.”

Sam pouts, but hands over three cards as Rhodey laughs. Maria lays down four twos in front of her. But he stops laughing as she turns to him. “Do you have any aces?”

“Dammit!” Another four are laid down, and she’s got two cards left.

“How is it that you always win?” Helen asks while Maria is thinking about her next move. “Do you count the cards?”

Maria shrugs. “Just have a good memory for who’s asked for what and where cards are.”

“And good people-watching skills,” Sam tells Helen. “Next time it’s someone else’s turn; watch Maria. Because she’s busy watching everyone’s reaction to what people ask for.”

“You are so full of shit.”

“So was my nanna’s garden, and you should have seen the size of those eggplants!”

“Was that supposed to sound as suggestive as it came out?” Helen inquires, as Maria snorts, and Rhodey chokes on his beer.

“It’s Sam, so...probably.” Maria turns to Pepper. “Do you have any fives?”

She has nines, jacks, and a single, lonesome three. “Go fish!”

Maria fishes, makes a face at the card she’s received, and looks to Jane. “Next!”

There’s a long moment of silence as Jane studies her cards. “Okay, Colonel, do you have any kings?”

He huffs and hands her two cards. “Just when I thought I was clear...”

Four cards go down. “Pepper, do you have any jacks?”

Pepper hands over her cards.

“Helen, do you have any jacks?”

Helen hands over a single jack. “You said you were losing!”

Sam snorts as another quartet of cards is laid down and leans in to Helen. “You might wanna rethink your perception of who’s the cunningest of them all.”

“Pepper, do you have any nines?” Jane’s smile is impish.

As she hands them over, Pepper already knows Jane has won. She can read faces and body language, too; she doesn’t need the last four cards to be laid out for all to see.

“It’s like being savaged by a goldfish,” Rhodey says, hoisting his bottle in Jane’s direction before taking a big swig. “You’re a card shark, doc.”

Jane protests this – she just had really good luck this game – while the others laugh. Sam jostles her and starts telling a story about a card game he once played with a group of Allies stationed in Afghanistan, including a Brit, an Aussie, and a New Zealander.

“This sounds like a joke,” Helen observes.

“Oh, I’m telling you it was no joke. So Kim is in the Supply and Requisition Division, and those guys can get you _anything._ So, for some reason, the Brit got it into his head...”

Pepper sits back in her lounge and looks at these people. It’s not just killing time until the ‘main attraction’ gets back from dinner and start paying attention to them, it’s time spent with clever, well-informed people who have a broad range of experience and ideas, and are happy to talk about what they know, and listen to each other.

Yes, the connection is primarily through the Avengers, but that's not the _only_ thing that matters. They like who they are, they're willing to put themselves out a little, and they're happy to be here, in the moment.

It won’t last forever. Seasons come and seasons go, and people move in and out of lives and life stages and life choices. Pepper couldn’t imagine knowing these people twenty years ago; she’s not sure she can imagine what they’ll all be like in twenty years time.

But in this moment?

At this point in time, they’re all here, doing things they maybe never dreamed they’d be doing, being people they didn’t know they could be a mere six years ago. The world has changed, and so have their outlooks, their perspectives, their futures.

When Maria catches her eye and lifts one brow in question, Pepper smiles, reassuring her with a small toast of her martini glass.

In this moment, at this time, life is good

 


End file.
